your teddy bear and mr. jimmy

This Lincoln Town Car is owned by Mr. Jimmy Leary who owns the candy store on Tompkins Avenue in Bed-Stuy. Officially called Jimmy’s Candy Store, this place is more of a museum of curiosities and old candies like Squirrel Nut Zippers, Mary Jane and Black Cow. There are two wooden phone booths in the front of the store that have had the payphones removed but now provide a nice perch for the official store cat. Most Sunday mornings I get the paper here and have chats with Mr. Jimmy about his car and the neighborhood. He’s been in the same spot for over 30 years. I’ll never forget the smile on his face when I showed him this photo which is now framed and sitting behind his vintage wooden display cases. Next door at 404 Tompkins was another candy and novelty shop that back in the day was the birthplace of the original Teddy Bear. You can read about it and this store in James T. & Karla Murray‘s excellent book that I mentioned last week, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York. Waddaya mean you haven’t bought it yet!?!

fabrications and appropriations

This is a later model Volkswagen Vanagon. I’ve always wanted one of the early VW Type 2 Transporter or Kombi models or more affectionately known as the “hippie van.” My friend Steve had one. He played S-T-E-V-E with a Van in the movie Slacker. After his role in that film he went on to become very famous and is now living in Mexico somewhere working on a boat with Morgan Freeman. I must admit I didn’t think much of Steve the first time I laid eyes on him; looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over. That was my first impression of the man. Some of the details of this story are fabrications and appropriations of movie quotes much like in my real life.

know where your muzzle is before you squeeze the trigger

My beloved football club Chelsea lost over the weekend to Liverpool. Two great teams that I love to watch even when they aren’t playing each other. Their respective colors are blue and red so this recent photograph seemed a perfect choice for this week’s offering.
This I believe is a 1956 Ford F-100 distinguished by the large wraparound windshield and hulking mass of a front end. My father drove a similar 1965 model only his had a custom bullet hole in the front hood. The story goes that he laid his rifle on the hood to steady his aim through the scope to shoot an armadillo not realizing that the barrel was pointed right into the bump of the hood. The truck took a hit and the armadillo lived to fight another redneck day. I loved that old truck. It had two gun racks; one on the back window and the other mounted on the floor near the gearshift for easy access. The old man has always driven trucks and even when he traded the ’65 truck for a car it was really a truck…a ’77 Ford Ranchero. Stubborn is just another word for consistent.

mostly neutral in color, plump and limbless

This setting has everything I could possibly want in my photographs. There is absolutely nothing missing except for maybe a piece or two of plywood.
It’s not hard to see what I’m talking about: the color of the car, the wood background, and the two-tone asphalt. And you thought I was just about old, cool cars. This Volkswagen Jetta works just fine.

If you peek just over the top of the car and above the ant, the text of the graffiti on the wall seems a bit confusing. But if you’ve read The Manufacture Of Non-Bleeding Maraschino Cherries by Jillian Ciaccia then you’ll know that it’s a part of the sentence, “The fruit, mostly neutral in color, plump and limbless is easily harvested with an extended reach.”

*If you know the name of the “ant” street artist please contact me.

coats, soothes, relieves

Bismuth subsalicylate, also known as pink bismuth is the main ingredient in Pepto-Bismol which has seemed to inform the color of this 1967 Buick Special. The car is supposedly owned by one of The Wau Wau Sisters, a burlesque act from Brooklyn, NY. They dress up like private school studens, talk dirty and dance suggestively. These were the type of women that my mother, a former nun, warned me about. Shake well before use. 1 dose (2 Tbsp or 30 ml) every 1/2 to 1 hour as needed.

pablo picasso drove an eldorado

This car seemed to be saying, “Look at my tone-on-tone color scheme and matching tan house!” I walked toward it to get a closer look when I noticed a group of men playing cards behind the fake-grass covered fence. A young guy jumped up as I eyed the car. He didn’t look too happy. I was explaining to him that I was a photographer and like to take pictures of cars on the street, when an older gentlemen stood up from the card table and walked over. I could tell right away that he was the boss, and I told him I liked the car. “It’s mine and I have another in the back,” he said, and led me to the gate where he kept a sleek black 60′s era Cadillac hidden under a tarp. “You should shoot this one.” Upon hearing that I immediately had a flashback to the movie Goodfellas where the Robert De Niro character tries to get his friend’s wife to enter a building all alone. Did he really want to shoot me? I was relieved when he gave me permission to shoot the Eldorado. I thanked him and vowed to bring him a print next time I was in the area.

deuce-and-a-quarter

Sometimes I’ll get lucky and meet the owner of a car I’ve photographed. I never know how someone will react when I tell them, “I shot your car.” Most seem okay with it and are more than happy to offer up a story. I met the owner of this Buick and gave him a small print, much to his surprise.

This car is a Buick Electra 225 or as its known on the street, the Deuce-and-a-Quarter. It measures 225 inches bumper-to-bumper.

I took this shot very quickly, not caring too much for the framing.  I didn’t think it would work because the background was too busy. I try to stay away from signs and awnings. But once I looked at it on a larger screen it came to life and became one of my favorites.

the importance of being patient

I visited this spot so many times hoping for the right car to fill the space. I love the corrugated aluminum siding and the small windows of this building that occupies most of this triangular block. It reminds me of the side of a ship.

This blue Lincoln Town Car had been parked in various sections of the street but never on its own against this background. I once sat across the street, waiting and waiting for a large idling truck to move so I could shoot the car properly. The driver decided to take a lunch break so I moved on.

Then one morning it finally happened. There was the car all by itself. I quickly snapped a few shots before the street started filling up.  I unconsciously left a bit of blue sky in the top left corner of the frame. It plays nicely with the Lincoln’s body color, and was one of those nice surprises from reviewing shots at the end of the day.